Personal Narrative: Colonial American Civil War

For a long time, Jamestown, VA took in many indentured servants—a worker who is under contract of an employer for up to seven years in exchange for transportation and many necessities (clothing, food, drink, and lodging)—in order to fulfill the duties that the owners couldn’t. Though employers made Jamestown seem like a loving and welcoming place, it was just the opposite. These indentured servants were treated equally to slaves, but many were willing to risk their lives in order to gain their own land. Once they obtained land of their own, they could grow their own tobacco and become extremely wealthy.

During the 18th century, indentured servitude had become very common in British North America; this was one way many poor Europeans could come to America for a “better” life. In order to emigrate to the American colonies, they would sign long-term labor contracts, to pay off the debt they picked up when they wanted to come to the American colonies. The primary source, “Gottlieb Mittelberger on the Trade in Indentured Servants” is written by Mittelberger himself in 1750, who was an emigrant that arrived in British North America as an indentured servant. In this source, he explains the negatives of coming to British North America; the ups and downs he faced, for instance: the long and horrible voyage conditions, and the sale of human beings once they had landed.

In the essay "The Evolution of Slavery in Colonial America," author Jon Butler examines the growth of the slave practice in the land which would become the United States. As the European nations began exploring North America, they overtook the native populations of the areas and turned them into unpaid laborers. However, these people were not enough to supply landholders with sufficient aid. To make up the necessary numbers, plantation owners utilized indentured servants and then a number of slaves imported from Africa. Indentured servants were people who would be taken from the Old World to the New in order to start a new life. However, since they would not have the necessary funds to pay for their transportation, their journey would be funded by either a manufacturer or a plantation owner and their debt would be paid off by working for their benefactor. Slaves were not given this opportunity. These were people who were taken from their homes and families and forced into labor by threat of violence or death. This practice did not begin in the United States, but America was still allowing slavery well into the 19th century, long after other nations had come to the conclusion that slavery was inhumane and brutal.

The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

In the middle colonies, a large part of the labor force consisted of indentured servants--men and women, but more often men, who would travel to the colonies to work under a contract for approximately four to seven years. However, according to “Indentured Servants in The U.S.”, “an indentured servant’s contract could be extended as punishment for breaking a law” such as running away or becoming pregnant, in a woman’s case. Throughout the time that they worked, the indentured servants were under the complete rule of their masters, but they were provided transportation/passage, food, clothing, and shelter. Indentured servants were a useful source of labor, but the problem was that it was only temporary, and after their contract ended, they had the option of continuing to work

The transition from colonial era to Revolutionary era brought many variations that greatly affected indentured servants that would later be slaves. In the colonial era, indentured servants were individuals who signed a contract that tied them to a land under the authority of a master. They usually worked in plantations to cultivate crops especially tobacco. They were bound to the land from four to seven years to pay off their transportation to America. Once they worked off their time, they were assured land and freedom. At this time, indentured slaves were both black and white people. The profit from tobacco was growing therefore the demand for labor increased. For planters, the issue of indentured servants escaping was becoming common. African people were easier to identify and catch if they escaped because of the color of their skin and lack of resources.

This made indentured servitude, America’s first labor system, appealing to immigrants because it gave them a chance to improve their lives. Indentured servants consisted of mostly young men and some women who signed a contract to work a specific length of time for an employer, also called the master. The length of servitude intially ranged between three to seven years. Servants gained passage to America, food, clothing, and shelter.. Upon completion of their contract, servants were to receive their freedom dues. These dues included land, barrels of corn, and a few articles of clothing. Many also received extra dues such as a horse or cow and specific tools for trade depending on their gender. In return, an employer had laborers to tend their fields and more land was awarded to them for each servant he brought over from England. The purchase of indentured servants was almost three times cheaper than the purchase of African slaves that started coming to Virginia from the Caribbean. The indentured system seemed to beneficial for both the laborer as well as the employer,

Indentured servants were used in early colonial times as a means of passage to the new world. The cash crops of the early settlers were exhaustingly labor intensive. In fact, U.S. History (2015) indicated that “the growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America” (p. 1). The technology did not exist at the time for machinery that clears the ground and works the land as it does today. The work had to be done by hand; from clearing and prepping the fields to harvesting the crops, it was all manual labor for which the new land did not have ample supply of.

Indentured servants and slaves were treated in broadly similar ways. They were both brought to the New World in horrible conditions with many dying along the way. They were both subject to physical

In the 17th and 18th century many were lured, some were forced, children even kidnapped to travel to America as indentured servants. These people became “commodities of profit” to everyone they were controlled by, much like the slaves. The immigrants agreed to pay the cost of their voyage to the New World by working as a servant for a master for five to seven years, they then would be free (but most likely still poor) to build a life of their own in America –that is, if they survived the whole process. Indentured servants were severely mistreated, but they did have some rights during their service- even if those rights were fist decided on by their masters (who they could marry, etc.). They were much like slaves, but they could go to court (even though the court almost always decided in favor of the

White indentured servants only had to work for their master for several years before being granted as a free man and given their freedom dues which included “one good cloth suit of kersey or broadcloth…fifty acres of land” (Bigham, 32). But indentured servitude started to be less readily available in the southern colonies because Europe’s economy started to improve after the 1660s and less people felt the need to make the long difficult voyage to America to give their family a better life. However, with slaves the status of the mother would ultimately determine the status of the children and whether or not they too would be deemed slaves, it was in the planter’s best interest that they status of slavery was

People would offer themselves up to work the land and do other miscellaneous work in exchange for a passage to America. Although it is generally believed that indentured servants, as a whole, were treated better and more fairly than slaves, that is not completely true. Some indentured servants were treated kindly by their “owners”, while others were physically abused and had no rights in the eyes of whoever had control over them. Just like regular slaves, these servants were treated like property and were passed down through the family. If the primary owner of a servant died while they still had time to serve, then they were passed on to someone else in their family to allow them to finish their sentence. Frequently, indentured servants were beaten so badly that they would die, in which the master beating them would face little to no

During the colonization era, most of the laborers came from Great Britain as indentured servants. An indentured servant is a person that signed a contract to pay for their passage to America by working. They usually worked on a farm since the colonies were based on agriculture. These servants were young laborers that intended on becoming permanent residents of the Chesapeake Bay settlements. Some servant owners treated them the same way they treated their family members, whether it was good or bad. Sometimes, convicted criminals were transported to the colonies as indentured servants instead of being imprisoned. Indentured servants weren’t considered slaves. However, when they came to Virginia they were required to work four to seven years to pay for the cost of their transportation. Some found that the major problem with indentured servants was most of them left after several years after they became skilled. It was estimated that over half of all of the white immigrants came as indentured servants. The number of indentured servants was the highest in the South.

In the Civil War the North had many advantages over the South. The South was outnumbered, out supplied, and pushed into a corner using military tactics. Many things changed because of the Civil War. The military tactics used by the North changed how war was fought from then on. Many changes were made politically; some were only temporary, while others were permanent. After the war was over, the country was reunited and the image of the soul and duty of our country redefined.

The Civil War was all the Northern States’ fault. The “issue” of slavery should not have bothered them in the first place. If someone had a problem with slavery the solution was simple: don’t own slaves. Instead, they tried meddling with slavery which lead to the Southern States’ secession and eventually, the Civil War.